Born in Scotland on 20 November 1865, he emigrated to Canada in 1893. The following year, he was hired as Winnipeg’s first Superintendent of Public Parks, though he often went by the title of City Gardener. England had the challenging task of turning the Parks Board’s eight newly-purchased properties into green spaces. Some, such as Central Park and Notre Dame Park, were little more than swamps considered unsuitable for any other type of development, and required years to drain and fill.

From his greenhouses in Notre Dame Park (now Jacob Penner Park), he spent years testing which plants and trees were best suited to Winnipeg’s soil conditions and climate. He envisioned a day when entire city parks would be filled with nothing but plants indigenous to Manitoba. He was responsible for the planting of thousands of elm trees on the city’s boulevards.

In 1906 he resigned after controversy erupted about his spending practices. He was briefly Parks Superintendent in Victoria, British Columbia before moving to Los Angeles, California where he worked as a landscaper on private estates.